Korine Custer: The Popcorn Lady Feels Like a Million Bucks

by June Zaragoza, MPH, RD, LD

Before surgery Korine found even simple daily tasks incredibly difficult to do. She would get winded doing the laundry. Coming back up the stairs she could only do two at a time. Her face got beet red and her head pounded. She couldn’t cross her legs or find any good clothing at sizes 4-5X. She thought, “Why am I doing this to myself?” After a day of grazing she didn’t want to do anything. She would drink 3-4 cans of soda, and “always” had candy around the house. Her blood sugar was sky high. “If I had a whim, I ate it. I would get mad at myself, feel depressed all the time. I had no self-esteem at all.”

Finally she got inspired by hearing the story of Sharon Osbourne, who lost weight using the Lap-Band®. She looked the surgery up and saw it was less invasive than the bypass. Since she didn’t heal well after surgery, she decided to apply for the shorter procedure. She had to do a year of weight loss attempts with her doctor and even then was denied the first time, but she was determined. With additional letters from her doctors, she finally got the approval.

The surgery itself felt like “a wrestling match with Hulk Hogan,” and she was sore for a week. But now, almost a hundred pounds less at a year, things are a lot better, including her diabetes. She says “I can walk stairs without feeling winded, can pick up things like crazy. Not much I can’t do – fit into restaurant booths, chairs with arms. My church is proud of me. I’m not embarrassed to walk down the street anymore.”

She does have some advice for others. “If they tell you don’t eat it, don’t do it. I never expected that to happen.” After eating well chewed popcorn after an adjustment, a little hulk of popcorn swelled her stomach shut. She had to go to the ER and Dr. Siegel took out all her fluid so the hulk could pass. Despite the occasional set backs such as this she states, “I feel like a millions bucks. I just feel great.”